Prosper Bizwork (48) who is also the alleged mastermind in
the current case and five accomplices are charged with fraud as defined in
Section 136 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9; 23.
The suspects were arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption
Commission (ZACC) detectives in just two weeks after ZRP had failed to make any
headway in four months.
It is understood that some ZRP officers are now under
investigation for receiving US$7 000 to sweep the case under the carpet.
Sources allege that the officers had demanded US$20 000 to destroy the case.
The State is denying bail for the six arguing that they are
likely to abscond considering the serious charges that they are facing. The
Investigation officer, Eric Chacha told the court that investigations have
linked syndicate members to 10 other properties that were fraudulently sold.
He said the syndicate has links to a number of Government
departments where it managed to get forged identity cards and to get a
replacement deed.
Bizwork was supposed to appear in another courtroom today
in a case in which he forged title deeds to Dr Mutumbuka’s US$600 000 Chisipite
house and sold it for just US$45 000.
The case had to be postponed.
According to the State outline, conveyancing of the
property; Number 589 Rietfontein Township of Lot 15 Harare was done at TK Hove
and Partners. The law firm’s conveyancing clerk Samson Mushayi is one of the
six who was arrested and appeared for bail application today.
Mushayi is also accused of creating a duplicate title deed
used to sell the house. The State also says Mushayi is the one who facilitated
interviews at Zimra and the transfer of the property in the name of the buyers.
The other accused are Erick Dube (39), Tedious Marufu (47),
Amos Chisvo (43) and Patience Nhope (46). Another suspect only identified as
Collen is at large.
The State says sometime in 2023, the six connived to
defraud unsuspecting buyers and sell them houses.
Bizwork hired Patience Nhope and another person only known
as Collen to act as sellers of 589 Rietfontein which in actual fact are owned
by Octavious Chikonyora and Precious Danda. He managed to get fictitious
identity cards for the two sellers of the houses in the name of Chikonyora and
Danda.
Nhope and collen appeared for interviews at Zimra
pretending to be Chikonyora and Danda.
Bizwork then brought in Marufu to look for agents to sell
the house. Marufu brought in Chisvo and Ndamuka as agents.
Mushayi was brought in for conveyancing and allegations are
that meetings were held at his offices at TK Hove.
Dube advertised the house using a fake name Raphael Dube
under a marketing company called Rockwell Land Developers.
Max Merrit Msutu and Tariro Chingaya responded to the
advert wanting to buy the house. The two insisted that they wanted to use their
own conveyance company but they were told that for the purpose of transferring
and conveyancing, this was strictly going to happen at TK Hove and Partners.
It is the State case that TK Hove did not have the original
title deed of the property hence Mushayi created a duplicate deed.
After the finalisation of the deal the syndicate which had
agreed to share the money equally getting about US$10 000 each did not as
others were duped and they got less than US$5 000.
The owner of house who was away only became aware of the
deal after a neighbour called him to find out if he had sold the house since he
had seen new people tidying up the place.
The bail ruling will be on Monday. Masvingo Mirror
0 comments:
Post a Comment